Giro d’Italia 2018: Stage 5 highlights – Video

Battaglin jumped away with Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida), and once the line was in sight he never looked back – his powerful surge too much for Visconti. In fairness to the Bahrain rider, he had to help his team leader Domenico Pozzovivo back from a massive disruption in the peloton inside the final 15km and the effort clearly cost him.

A similar chase also cost best young rider Max Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors), who lost his bid to take the bonus seconds for third place to Katusha-Alpecin’s José Gonçalves. The four second bonus pushed the Portuguese rider into eighth in the general classification.

ADVERTISEMENT

Most of the top 10 riders overall remained in the same spots – leader Rohan Dennis (BMC) and defending Giro d’Italia champion Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) separated by a single second, and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in third at 17 seconds.